LAST PAGE: Susan Mark, 62
Skaneateles Festival executive director talks about the event, from its early days in the Skaneateles Library to today
By Mary Beth Roach
Q: Can you give an overview of the festival and how it came about?
A: Back in 1980, Lindsay Groves, who played with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra [and plays with the current iteration now], thought Skaneateles would be a great spot to have concerts, and at that point the orchestra didn’t play in August. So, she approached some folks in town and suggested that they try doing some chamber concerts. She met with a small group, and they decided to go for it. They did some concerts upstairs in the Skaneateles Library.
Q: Does the festival feature classical and chamber music?
A: It started out as chamber music and some small chamber orchestras, but over the years it expanded. We have something for everyone. We still have chamber music. And we try to do something different — a full classical orchestra with a soloist, bluegrass, jazz, Broadway.
Q: You took over as executive director in 1999. What prompted you to take on the festival?
A: They had a general manager who was leaving, and I was approached about taking it over. I wasn’t sure. It’s a big responsibility. I was strictly an operations person. Prior to that, I’d worked for both the symphony and the Syracuse Opera in operations, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do development, fundraising, marketing, everything, but I met with several members of the board a couple of different times, and the people there won me over.
Q: What are your job responsibilities, and how have you grown the festival in the past 27 years.
A: For many, many years it was a one-person show. I was the only full-time employee. We had an artistic director, but then I would bring in summer interns — high school and college students — to help get things going. But now, we’re a bigger operation; I have three full-time staff members and part-time people as well: bookkeeping, grant help, outreach, publicity and marketing.
Q: With regards to your slate of performers, is it a mix of local and some more nationally recognized performers?
A: The majority of them are national folks that come from all over the country, and some of them will come for one night, some of them will come for a whole week. But, when we’re putting together the orchestra for the concerts, those tend to be Syracuse, Rochester and Ithaca musicians.
Q: What is your favorite part of the festival?
A: I think it’s the people. That includes the musicians and the folks that come to the concerts. That really is what won me over — just really wonderful, kind people — and to watch them enjoying the music, that’s really a lot of fun. I usually position myself somewhere in the back where I can watch everybody else.
Q: What do you think accounts for its success — it’s been in existence now for almost 50 years, right?
A: It’s grown tremendously over the years. We’ve been able to — with the support of the community, and that’s the Central New York community not just Skaneateles — we’re able to make it happen, to bring more recognizable artists, bigger names. But now with the support we have, we can bring in the bigger acts like Béla Flack and Wynton Marsalis, and that just spreads the word far and wide. We have people that really make Skaneateles a destination in August. They know if they want to stay in Skaneateles, they better book their room early. We’ll get calls in February saying, ‘Do you know yet who’s coming?’ It’s been a great thing to watch grow.
I was the only full-time staff member for the early years. One of the things I learned from David [Robinson, one of the festival’s founders] is just to be incredibly fiscally responsible. We’ve been in the black all these years. We survived this pandemic. I’m very proud of that and the board and being able to keep things on financial footing. It’s pretty unusual, and I’m very grateful for that.
Visit www.skanfest.org for more information about the Skaneateles Festival.